I personally love having a knuckleballer in the rotation. Yes, they can swing between throwing a no-hitter to giving up 7 runs in a third of an inning. And the lame-ass jokes (Hey! you know how to catch a knuckleball? Wait until it stops rolling and go pick it up) can get tiring, especially when you hear them a BILLION TIMES. But there is just something fun and quirky about the pitch that so very few hurlers can master. And Tim Wakefield was one of my favorite Red Sox players. EVER, so there is that as well…

And it is especially nice to see Steven Wright being so successful now, and last night was no exception. His line for last night’s contest: 7 IP giving up 3 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits while walking 2 and striking out 7. He threw 117 pitches, 74 for strikes. And while his 4-4 is not super impressive, he has a 2.52 ERA, and has 54 strikeouts in 9 games–and average of 6 strikeouts is impressive, as is the fact that he has only given up THREE homers this year…

And he has had two complete games in 2016. TWO. So far. He is rapidly moving into 3rd starter territory, which is WAY cool. And I know, the next outing he could get completely shelled, but I think this guy is the real deal. And holy hell, he’s better than That Clay Person. A LOT better….

And JBJ is now at 29 games and counting. People are already talking about Jose DiMaggio’s record of 56 games. He’s got a long way to go, and I think it’s a lot harder to do than it used to be. I cannot even imagine the pressure. I remember back in 2002 when Oakland set the AL record for consecutive wins with that crazy 20- game winning streak. I was stressed watching them pull a rabbit out of a hat in some days when a win seemed impossible….

But no matter what happens, it’s fun to watch, and a HUGE relief that the Sox never gave up on this guy when he was hitting under the Mendoza line…Oh, and in case you were wondering, he is currently hitting THREE FIFTY…

While most of the focus is on JBJ’s crazy cool hitting streak, Xander is making a pretty compelling case to be one of the best shortstops the Sox have had. EVER. Better than Nomar even. HE has an 18 game hitting streak, a slash of .349/.404/.513, has hit 5 homers so far this year (he hit 7 in all of 2015), and has a .994 fielding percentage in 45 games. And he is 23 years old. Yeah…

I cannot even tell you how much fun it is to watch these young ‘un dominate like this…And its likely they have not ever hit their peak yet…so WOW…

And how bout Blake Swihart??? He was a catcher who morphed into a Left Fielder pretty much out of nowhere, cause the Sox really didn’t need another catcher (for now, but you never know, anything can happen), but then can always use another outfielder, especially with Brock Star still on the Concussion DL, and not ready to come back yet. So he has played 4 games in left and done pretty well. Certainly better than Hanley did last year, and it’s always nice to have options.

Oh, and he hit two triples last night. TWO.

Finally! Eduardo Rodriguez seems to be on track. He had a great start on Tuesday, with 7 innings of 1 run, 4-hit ball. It is possible he could be activated to start this weekend, or get another start on Sunday in Pawtucket. In any event, when he comes back is where it gets interesting. Where do they put him? He’s not a bullpen guy, and the most likely candidate for bullpen is Joe Kelly, who has two great starts since his return from the DL. The obvious choice (at least to me) is either Buchholz goes to the bullpen (which I would be totally shocked if that happened), or gets sent to Pawtucket (which I think is even less likely). But hey, Dave Dombrowski started Travis Shaw over Panda, and sent Rusney Castillo to the minors, so maybe he’ll do the right thing here…

Coming up: Game 3 against Colorado and then the Sox head up to Toronto for the holiday weekend. Clay Buchholz gets the start in this final game, and I am fully expecting that unless the Sox’s offensive trend continues, he will lose this game. He is opposed by Jon Gray. 1st pitch: 7:10pm.